I am a Beethoven fanatic and have pretty much everything worth having, which in my opinon is everything Beethoven composed.



Of all the Cycles my choice for the Cycle boxes would be toss up between Sir Charles Mackerras' with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra on EMI



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...49532?v=glance




David Zinman with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra on Arte Nova. This one is the first that uses the corrected Bärenreiter Urtext of Beethoven's manuscript. It appears that the last 100 years Orchestra's have been using the mistake ridden Breitkopf version. The result of printers' editing and transcription errors. Zinman also plays at the jet speed tempo that Beethoven intended for the Symphonies to be played.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...646125-1749532




For a period piece recording my choice is Gardiner with the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique on Deutsche Grammophon.


Jonathan Del Mar who prepared the Bärenreiter Urtext also helped with the Gardiner.

I might be the first person to get a ticket for playing Beethoven's 9th too loud while driving by some tone deaf cop.